A very pregnant Galicia Malone was so determined to participate in her first presidential election that she took a few cleansing breaths and put those labor pains right out of her mind until her vote was cast.

Malone, 21, started having pains in her back and pelvic area around 3 a.m. Tuesday. By the time she drove from her mother’s house in Richton Park, where she stayed last night, to New Life Church precinct in Thornton, the pains were five minutes apart.

“This is my first baby, a girl, and I wanted to make a good impression,” Malone said. “I want to have a story to tell her.”

Malone, whose due date isn’t until Nov. 10, was en route to South Suburban Hospital when we caught up with her.

“The pains are pretty steady but my doctor says to think of it as getting ready to give life,” she said.

Though she is against abortion, Malone, of Dolton, said her belief that women should have the right to make their own decisions prompted her to vote for President Barack Obama.

“I just agree with more of his policies than with (Mitt) Romney’s,” she said.

“I grew up on Sesame Street and PBS,” she said. “He wants to cut that. What will my daughter grow up on?”